One Saturday morning a few years ago, our family were walking the Main Street of the city we lived in when we stumbled on a mini festival running in the city park. As part of the festival, there were a series of little games set up, and we were invited by one of the organizers to try our hand at a few of them.
We started with a game of Connect 4. The game was an oversized version which made it easier to play, and we had fun as a family putting the tokens in to get 4 tokens of the same color in a line.
Then we moved on to the bean bag toss. The whole point of this game was to throw the beanbag into the hole on the board several feet away from us. We spent several moments taking turns trying to get it into the hole.
Finally we moved on to the last game that had caught our eye - Badminton. My wife and I stood on either side of the net hitting the shuttlecock to each other. I must admit that this game was played in more of a competitive spirit than the first two. We hit it back and forth over the net and had great fun trying to hit a winner.
I was thinking later on about the mornings’ proceedings and the fun we had, when I came to this realization: what had made the activities we had participated in enjoyable and meaningful was that they each had a goal. There was a point to their being. There was a purpose behind the play.
And just imagine with me for a moment, if you took away the purpose of the games. Connect 4. Instead of trying to line up 4 of the same color, you would just place tokens in randomly. That would get old real fast.
Or bean bag toss. You take away the target and it loses all meaning. You are left just throwing the bean bag at…………….who knows?
Badminton - remove the net and the opponent and you are left wistfully hitting the shuttlecock up in the air to yourself.
If these games had no purpose, then the people participating in them would run around aimlessly, lacking direction.
And the same is true in life. Without a sense of purpose and meaning, people run around aimlessly and with little direction.
Now the truth of scripture is pretty clear when it comes to talking about purpose.
It tells us that God created us with a purpose.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
— Ephesians 2:10
When it comes to your life, God has plans. Good things He has planned for you. He has a purpose for your life.
If we believe this to be true, then the next logical question it raises is this: How do I discover my purpose?
Great question!
And when you ask that question, many people would say that you need to start by looking within. By understanding your internal make-up, your basic personality traits, your passions, desires, interests.
All these are good things to be aware of. There are elements of who you are on the inside that have the fingerprints of God all over them.
But the big problem with this advice is that it lacks any perspective beyond what you, or those around you, can give you.
Because, here’s the thing.
“You didn’t create yourself, so you can never fully understand yourself. ”
You don’t know the why behind all the ins and outs of your personality and makeup. You don’t know why you are a certain way, why you have the passions and desires and abilities that you have. You don’t know why you love some things, and despise other things.
You need a bigger perspective on yourself and your purpose.
And that perspective can only come from the person who gave you that purpose to begin with.
God Himself. The one who created you.
And you discover His perspective on your life when you get to know Him on a personal basis. This starts by opening your life to Him in surrender, and then growing in your relationship with Him as you spend time with Him on a daily basis.
Let me say it another way:
“You will never get clear on your purpose until you get close to your Creator.”
He is the one who created you. He is the one who made you. He knows why He made you. He knows why you have those passions, desires, why you do things a certain way.
The starting point to discovering your purpose is to get in close relationship with your Creator and allow His wisdom, guidance and direction to lead you into an understanding of His purpose for your life.
Every Christmas time, one of the things we love to do as a family is check out the different houses that display Christmas Lights.
And so a couple of years back, a few days before Christmas, we went out at night to see some lights, and we discovered one of the best lights displays we had ever seen.
The whole front of this house was lit up in a array of lights that were flashing on and off, there was music playing that the lights seemed to be in sync to, there was a radio frequency advertised where you could tune into it, and have that music play on the radio in your car, there was a projector screen playing music videos of the music you could hear. It was bright, colorful, and mind-blowing in terms of the design and complexity of everything before our eyes.
(Click here for a short video of the lights!)
And so naturally being the curious type, I had a bunch of questions. I wondered how this whole thing was put together? How were the lights syncing to the music? Where did this person get the lights from? Does it go all night or turn off at a certain time? How much does it cost to run? How does the radio thing work?
A few nights later we went back to see this Christmas light display again.
As we were standing in front of the house admiring it for the second time - I noticed a guy standing a little bit back from the road, observing all that was going on.
I said hello to him and we got chatting. Turns out this was his house. This was his light display. He was the Creator of what was going on before me.
And so I started asking him all the questions I had.
He told me how he worked for an electrical wholesaler in town and so was able to get his hands on some good quality lights. He told me how the display was made up of 3000 individually controlled LED lights, which were all sequenced to the music and videos playing. He told me how he had to apply for a radio license to be able to broadcast an FM signal to people’s car radios. He said how the lights were so efficient that the whole display running for several hours only cost $0.87 a night. He told me how everything was run from a computer only slightly bigger than a credit card and how it was all able to be controlled and turned on and off by an app on his mobile phone. All the questions, all the things I was curious about, he answered.
I got more insight from 5 minutes of speaking with the Creator of the light show, than the few days where I was left to myself wondering how it was all put together.
You may have questions about your life, your make-up, your purpose. You can spend days and months and years wondering and pondering and searching for the answers.
Or you can go straight to your Creator. And ask Him. And gain clarity from Him. Gain understanding. Gain wisdom. Gain perspective. Gain everything you need from the one who made you and knows you.
He delights to show you His ways and his plans for your life.
We have a wonderful promise in Jeremiah 33:3:
“Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.”
— Jeremiah 33:3
He will tell us things. Marvelous and wondrous things. Things that we could never figure out on our own.
And He invites us to ask Him.
He knows you. He knows all about you. He knows why He made you. He knows your purpose.
And He invites you to ask Him. He has the answers to bring you clarity and understanding on your purpose. To point you in the right direction and give you wisdom on your way.
What you could never figure out on your own, He knows and delights to reveal it to you.
This is the starting place when it comes to discovering your purpose.